"Thank goodness we completed the building work last February because if we still had the old ground we simply couldn't have coped," said the Falcons boss.

"We are set to have a 10,000 full house against Wasps on Saturday and judging from the massive interest in Jonny (Wilkinson) following England's World Cup success, it will be the first of many more."

Andrew was over in Australia commentating for radio on England's semi-final and final and even though he played in the 1991 final, as well as the World Cups of 1987 and 95, he confessed he has never seen anything like it.

"The past 10 or so days have been simply incredible," explained Andrew.

"No-one in their wildest dreams could have predicted that rugby would attract such massive nationwide interest and Kingston Park has been buzzing for the past two days.

"Yesterday evening's Press conference with Jonny was like a media scrum and underlined what a massive sports personality he has become almost overnight.

"His performance against Australia in the final and particularly his winning drop goal in the last minute of extra time will go down in the annals of sporting and not just rugby history."

Thanks to all the hard work off the field over the past three seasons, Newcastle now have a stadium they can be justifiably proud of and which can cope with the expected massive increase in support, but is their team capable of matching Wilkinson's aspirations and ambitions?

"I have absolutely no doubt we now have a team good enough to go places and win things," replied Andrew.

"The first thing I did on getting back from Australia was to watch the video of our 19-15 victory at London Irish last Sunday and it was our best all-round team performance for a very long time and something we have been building up to.

"Jonny's return to the side will be the final piece in the jigsaw and with capacity home crowds as well as a massively increased rugby awareness all over the country, I believe we can go from strength to strength."

Meanwhile, although Newcastle are unlikely to risk their big star against Wasps on Saturday - jetlag and the need to relearn countless moves and calls being two of the main obstacles - the man himself can't wait to get back into action.

Looking very tired after the long flight from Australia and a day that started at Heathrow at 5am and took in a frenetic Press conference at Bagshot, a journey up to Newcastle and then a second Press conference at Kingston Park yesterday evening, the 24-year-old superstar said he was determined to get straight back into action.

"I'm ready to play and I'm available," said Wilkinson.

"I'm not injured, I will be out practising and I'm anxious to get back to it.

"I'll talk to a few people about Saturday and we'll see what happens but the guys have been doing great while I've been away."